(Elizabeth Eileen) Betty Nickerson

June 26, 1922 - January 20, 2021

Born during a tornado in Fort Scott, Kansas, Betty was the first child of Clarence Thomas and Helen (Smiley) Smith.  She grew up in Oregon, the eldest of five siblings where, as a young teenager during the Depression, she worked picking hops and prunes to help support the family.  She put herself through college on debating scholarships, a skill that would serve her well throughout her career. She earned a  B.A. in Sociology from the University of Utah in 1946 and later an M.A. in Sociology and Agriculture from the University of Manitoba in 1967.

During the war years, Betty worked as a radio broadcaster and speech writer and was involved in the civil rights movement, marching arm in arm with her black friends.  During the dark days of McCarthyism her husband, Dr. Mark Nickerson, lost his U.S. university position.  In 1954 Betty drove north with their three children aged 6, 3 and 4 months to join him in Winnipeg. She was always grateful for the safe haven she found in Canada.

In Winnipeg, Betty embarked on a career in television where from 1957 to 1963 she presented a live arts and crafts program involving young people.  She became known ever after as the “Busy Fingers Lady” after the name of the show.  Her young audience sent her vast quantities of artwork, some of which she traded for children’s art from other countries, amassing a huge collection from over 50 nations.  She wrote two books using these pictures as illustrations:  How the World Grows it’s Food, 1965 and Celebrate the Sun, 1969. 

Passionate about the importance of  youth’s creativity and role in society, she gave lectures and organized exhibitions in many countries around the world and across Canada including Expo ‘67 and the Man and His World Exhibition in Montreal in 1968.  The Nickerson Collection of Children’s Art is now housed permanently in Gatineau, Quebec at the Children’s Museum, part of the Canadian Museum of History.  From 1970 to 1981 she founded and ran All About Us/Nous Autres, a non-profit foundation to collect art, poems and stories from youth across Canada, organizing travelling exhibitions and publishing several books from the many thousands of submissions.

In 1982, Betty and her second husband, Dr. Seymour Trieger, moved to the West Coast, where a life-long concern for the environment led her to become the first-ever federal candidate for the Green Party of Canada, running in a by-election in 1983 and in the general election a year later.

Betty was always involved in the women’s movement as well, including a stint on the National Executive of the Voice of Women from 1963 to 1966.  As she entered her senior years, Betty became concerned with the place of older women in our society and, with the support of a Canada Council Grant, wrote Old and Smart: Women and Aging in 1991.  The huge response to this book led her to organize Amazing Greys, a gathering and celebration of older women that took place for four years in Parksville, B.C.

During this long and busy life Betty received numerous honours, awards and prestigious appointments including:  British Council Fellowship, 1966; India Arts Council Fellowship, 1967; Queen’s Jubilee Medal, 1977; Canadian Commissioner to UN International Year of the Child, 1979.

Betty lived her last ten years in declining health at the Eagleview facility in Comox, B.C.  At the age of 98 and a half it seems fitting that she died just hours after the swearing in of the first woman, a woman of colour no less, as the Vice President of the United States.  It represents much of what she stood for in her life.

She is survived and proudly remembered by her three children – Steve (Hiroko), Mike (Claire) and Marki (Larry), five granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.

"Keep your eyes on the stars, and do what’s possible."

                                                                                                         Betty Nickerson

The family gratefully declines any flowers, but planting a tree or making a donation to an environmental or human rights organization in her memory would probably make Betty smile.